Toys R Us = Dumb

[IrishJedi]

Well, it's official, the SPEED RACER movie is a complete dud. It opened up with a putrid $20.2 million in its Opening Weekend and word-of-mouth will not be good. Don't see sales of the toys (which haven't been selling all that well) picking up now.

Have fun with all of the dust bunnies for the next 2 years, TRU.

 

[teemu]

Well, it's official, the SPEED RACER movie is a complete dud. It opened up with a putrid $20.2 million in its Opening Weekend and word-of-mouth will not be good. Don't see sales of the toys (which haven't been selling all that well) picking up now.

Have fun with all of the dust bunnies for the next 2 years, TRU.

Yep! movie is out and nobody cares...havnt sold much speed racer, if any!
Now, Iron Man is selling, not flying off the shelf, but its selling...Here comes the Speed Racer markdowns

 

[IrishJedi]

Iron Man, Hulk, Indy and Batman toys may not exactly scorch the Earth will sales throughout the whole Summer, either... but the point from the beginning is that many retailers (especially TRU) banked on Speed Racer toys to be as successful (or even moreso) than all of those properties COMBINED. And they deserve to lose their shirts over such foolishness, imho.

 

[teemu]

Iron Man, Hulk, Indy and Batman toys may not exactly scorch the Earth will sales throughout the whole Summer, either... but the point from the beginning is that many retailers (especially TRU) banked on Speed Racer toys to be as successful (or even moreso) than all of those properties COMBINED. And they deserve to lose their shirts over such foolishness, imho.

agreed! my speed racer merchandise ranks 7 to 1 in quanity vs those properties...I bet they thought speed racer would be the next cars? not everything with 4 wheels sells

 

[IrishJedi]

agreed! my speed racer merchandise ranks 7 to 1 in quanity vs those properties...I bet they thought speed racer would be the next cars? not everything with 4 wheels sells

This is a good example of how insanely out-of-touch many corporations are these days.

 

[TheObsoleteMan]

I guess Wal-Mart played it smart on this one. All they have is a small display tucked in the hot wheels section.

 

[aussieinnyc]

Iron Man, Hulk, Indy and Batman toys may not exactly scorch the Earth will sales throughout the whole Summer, either... but the point from the beginning is that many retailers (especially TRU) banked on Speed Racer toys to be as successful (or even moreso) than all of those properties COMBINED. And they deserve to lose their shirts over such foolishness, imho.

Either that or the studio behind Speed Racer decided to use retailers as another form of marketing for the films and so offered some sort of subsidy for the merchandise (either at the retailer or manufacturer level). So the retailers might not have taken as big of a gamble as it might first seem. (Although I'd hate to be the studio marketing exec who authorised that!)

Of course, I have no facts to support this, but it is a possibility.

 

[IrishJedi]

Well, if that's the case then they must have given Toys R Us gazillions of dollars or supplied them with free products because Speed Racer is taking up a HUGE section of TRU floor and wall space between now and July 27 (when the huge "Star Wars" roll-out hits).

 

[Entropy]

I laughed every time I walked past that insanely huge Speed Racer display in TRU. Stupid crapfest movie. The Indy and Batman sections are four pegs long tucked next to customer service.

 

[IrishJedi]

Yep. And it was a mind-numbing move to stock more Speed Racer toys than all of those sure-fire licenses put together even if the movie was successful!

But at least there is a silver-lining: now all of those kids in 3rd world countries will have lots of Mach 5 toys to play with while wearing their Patriots & Rockies World Champions T-shirts.

 

[Shropt]

Speed Racer made barely 200k more than an Ashton Kutcher movie?!?!

ROTFLCOPTER SOI SOI SOI SOI SOI SOI SOI

 

[IrishJedi]

The Ashton Kutcher movie actually made more than Speed Racer on Friday.

 

[minivader]

these days I don't think any retailer can count on summer block buster movie toy sales anymore, there are just so many crap movies made over the years (even the ones that made tons of money at the box office) that have left the retailers with tons and tons of toys collecting dust. i say toys rus and all other major toy store (is there any left?) and toy makers should stop banking on movie merchandises and invest in more smaller properties like they used to.

 

[IrishJedi]

these days I don't think any retailer can count on summer block buster movie toy sales anymore, there are just so many crap movies made over the years (even the ones that made tons of money at the box office) that have left the retailers with tons and tons of toys collecting dust. i say toys rus and all other major toy store (is there any left?) and toy makers should stop banking on movie merchandises and invest in more smaller properties like they used to.

That's why it's a good idea to hedge your bets. TRU clearly did not.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I laughed every time I walked past that insanely huge Speed Racer display in TRU.

There's a dark side to me that enjoys this. It's payback for all the hit-and-run corporate greed in the world today.

I still don't get how they thought 14 versions of varying sizes of the same bloody car would sell?

 

[pickard]

There's a dark side to me that enjoys this. It's payback for all the hit-and-run corporate greed in the world today.

Do you believe that TRU has engaged in "hit-and-run corporate greed", or are all corporations inherently evil?

It's bad news for one of WalMart's few competitors for retail toy sales. How is that good news for any of us?

 

[Wor-Gar]

Do you believe that TRU has engaged in "hit-and-run corporate greed", or are all corporations inherently evil?

It's bad news for one of WalMart's few competitors for retail toy sales. How is that good news for any of us?

It's just a side, I said. I doubt Speed Racer will be the demise of TRU, dude. Don't worry, you'll get your toys.

 

[icruise]

Saw Speed Racer tonight. It was actually pretty good. I'll probably pick up a toy or two.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Saw Speed Racer tonight. It was actually pretty good. I'll probably pick up a toy or two.

There's planty to choose from.

 

[icruise]

Yeah, I should probably wait until they clearance out...